The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1887-10-13
THEODOSIA BURR.
THE STORY OF HER TERRIBLE
FATE


She is Supposed to have Been Murder
ed By Pirates off the Coast of n. c.
Interesting Evidence Bearing on the
Subject Furnished by DIR. Pool, of
Elizabeth City.
Correspondents Washington Post.
Few women of her day were more
beautiful and accomplished than
Theodosia Aston, the idolized daugh-
ter of Aaron Burr and devoted wife
of Governor Joseph Aston, of South
Carolina. Fewer still achieved so in
teresting a career or met with so tragic
an end.
Davis and Barton, her fathers BIZ
ographers, tell US she was lost at sea
early in January, 1913, while making
the voyage in small schooner called
the Patriot from her home near
Georgetown, s. c., to meet her father
in New York. A safer statement
would be that the vessel left port ON
the 30th of December, 1912, and was
never again heard of. Nothing oc-
Cured to disturb the hypothesis until
nearly forty years after her death,
when paragraph copied from Tex
as newspaper went the rounds of the
press, purporting to be the dying con-
fession of an old sailor who had re-
Gently died there, and who declared
on his death bed that he was one of
the crew of the Patriot in December,
1912, and that during the voyage the
sailors mutinied and murdered the
officers and passengers, Mrs. Aston
being the last to walk the plank. To
this statement the Pennsylvania En-.
q1lirer added corroborative evidence
as follows:
can item of news just now going
the rounds relates that sailor, who
died in Texas, confessed on his death
bed that he was one of the crew ct
mutineers who, some forty years ago,
took possession of a brig on its passage
from Charleston to New York, and
caused all the officers and passengers
to walk the plank. For forty years
the wretched man has carried about
the dreadful secret, and died at last in
the agony Of despair
"What gives the story additional
interest is the fact that the vessel re-
ferred to is the one in which Mrs.
Theodosia Alston, the beloved daugh-
ter Of Aaron Burr, took passage for
New York, for the purpose of meeting
her parent in the darkest days of his
existence, and which, never having
been heard Of was supposed to have
foundered at sea-
The dying sailor professed to re-
member her well, said she was the last
who perished, and that he never for
got her look of despair as she took the
last step from the fatal plank. On
reading this account | regarded it as
& fiction, but on conversing with an
officer of the navy he assures me of
the probable truth, and states that on
one of his passages home some years
ago his vessel brought two pirates in
irons, who were subsequently execut-
ed at Norfolk for recent ofenses, and
who before their execution confessed
that they had been members of the
same crew and participated in the
murder of Mrs Aston and her COM
panion.
Whatever opinion may be enter
tanned of the father, the memory OF
the daughter must be revered as one
Of the lovliest and most excellent OF
| American women, and the relation OF
her untimely fate can only serve to
invest that memory with more ten
der and melancholy interest.
Seventeen years later, in 1869, DR.
w. G. Pool, a physician of Elizabeth
City, n. c., was summering with his
family at Nag's Head, summer re
sort on the outer barrier of sand
which protects the North Carolina
coast, about fifty miles north Of Hat
teras. While here he made an inter.
esting discovery, an account of which
we copy from the correspondence o.
the Philadelphia Times of February
20, 1880.
| During that season he was called
upon professionally to visit lady
named Mrs. Mann, who lived tive
miles north of Nag's Head and direct
| ly opposite Kitty Hawk, where tn,
United States man of-war Huron me-
her fate. The old lady was 65 years
of age but never had occasion to seel
the services of a physician before, ant
whatever her complaint was now tht
doctor cured her. She had great feal
of physicians in general, and wher
she became well her gratitude to DR.
Pool was so intense "for not killing
her." as she expressed herself, that sh'
told him he could have anythinp II
her possession except money, and o
that she had none. The doctor stated
to her that he would make no charge
but becoming interested in the strang
being before him he, in company will
his little daughter, who is now youny
lady, paid the old woman almost dali,
visits. The house in which Mrs. Mann
resided was quaint though humble
and the surroundings were of the sam
nature. But what puzzled the docto
most was where woman OF Mrs
Mann's position in society could hav
obtained such fine oil painting, j
being evidently the portrait of hand
some, intelligent lady of high standing
in the social word. He was on tn
eve of questioning the old woman sew
eral times, but always failed, afraid t
offend by touching on some delicat
subject /; but the daughter came to hi
relief by saying: "Father, I hav
fallen in love with that beautiful pict
uae. Please buy it for me-" This wa
the fr.t occasion Mrs. Mann had ha
for proving her gratitude to the docto